10 Easy to Learn Hard to Master Board Games

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Love the shout out to Oceans! The fact that every round each of your species will age (lose a fish to your score pile) but only one of them will feed each round, makes it such a good puzzle. It’s this constant battle of optimizing your play to keep all of your species alive while only one of them can eat each round. Love it

[@FostertheMeeple]

Agreed!! Thanks for teaching us!

[@FrancoisLandryCorbin]

Besides the obvious oldies like Go and Chess, I would definitely put Hive in this category. The beat abstract game, IMO.

[@FostertheMeeple]

Hive is a good one!!

[@ralfn9629]

Hive is a good one. This is definitely more complex than it looks and is mostly played casually for fun. I own a couple of great books just on this game.

[@jamessmith1274]

Sea Salt and Paper is one of mine. Tapestry is not super easy to learn but still not hard but I love it but am terrible at it😂. I have only gotten over 100 not often. I also love games like this because it is accessible to learn. Oceans is so fantastic!

[@heavy_dice]

So many! Fantasy realms Blue lagoon Ride the rails Mecxica Age of steam Lost cities Even Splendor!

[@timborocksloud]

Sea Salt and Paper would be high on my list, also probably castles of burgundy!

[@tyleryoung3158]

Hot take: I think Friday is one of the best deckbuilders ever made.

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

Targi, Age of Steam, Roads and Boats, and Air Land and Sea come to mind. Some great ones here too!! It took me a good 20 or so plays of Friday to beat it. And now that I haven’t played in a while I’m sure I’d be losing again!

[@JonTripp115]

I'm happy to see Oceans on this list. It was one of the first games I picked up after entering the Hobby, and i still enjoy it. It seems to be divisive for some reason. Tak is a great little abstract game that has like two rules and a depth of strategy. Theres also a lot of trick-takers that I think fit the category, where the rules are quite simple, but then you get absolutely smoked by someone who understands the strategy.

[@jtsiren1676]

I appreciate the Res Arcana shout-out here. It really makes one think on their feet and make best use of the few cards they might use each game. Good call.

[@FostertheMeeple]

It’s an all time favourite of mine!

[@oppie47]

Stepping outside of board games, I’d definitely put Cribbage into this category. Strictly speaking, I know how to play it, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out which cards I should put in the crib for the best win.

[@Kasper8421]

One game that was easy to learn but I have not mastered, even after probably 20 plays, is Forbidden Desert. Playing at the “Normal” level means we will lose nearly every time.

[@rob4433]

Great series of games!

[@FostertheMeeple]

Haven’t played that one yet!!

[@jamesmorgan1967]

Nice to see some love for Sagani. We really enjoy that one. Played Azul (mini version) for the first time and I can see that we weren't playing optimally. I can see that someone has already mentioned my suggestion for this category: Hive. (P.S. I have never won a game of Friday.)

[@Tablenauts]

YES! Unsurprisingly, games that are easy to learn but have a lot of depth in terms of growth of skill are some of my favorites. Calico is a GREAT shout. Great video!

[@FostertheMeeple]

Thanks my guy!

[@efout89]

love this list. I feel like most Uwe games I have played have had a similar feeling of easy to learn, hard to master. especially Agricola! I could not figure out Friday and I can't tell if it is just me or if I was overthinking the game lol. will definitely need to go back and try again!

[@JJ_TheGreat]

How about the list of 10 games which are hard to learn, but easy to master?!

[@firstlast1603]

1. 2 Azul 3 Calico 4 Shipwreck 5 Mystic Moth chief 6 Oceans 🎉 7 8 9 10

[@stuartshannon8561]

Enjoyed the list. I’ve always felt like something was missing in Furnace. Love Res Arcana with both expansions🎉

[@frankharris9744]

another game i would add to this list is Jekyll v Hyde. i played like 12 times and kept trying to win/formulate a good strategy and failed miserably. i finally won my first game the other day.

[@luisamez8057]

Thanks for the video. One game that could fit in that category is Santorini. You can explain it in less that 1 minute. And, as you said with Mythic Mischief, very difficult to win against someone with way more experience than you. Also it is very beautiful.

[@Agent28Rock]

I was thinking this exact same game. When clicking on this video, I actually thought they were going to list Santorini 😂. Took the L

[@FostertheMeeple]

We chatted about Santorini for the list but left it off!

[@luisamez8057]

@@FostertheMeeple Fair enough. I am looking forward to receive the deluxe Pantheon edition. It looks gorgeous! I also wanted to try Mythic Mischief since you mentioned it in another video. It's a shame that the app is not available to everyone yet.

[@jodymitchell1678]

I can name another that isn't hard to learn but super hard to win. Ghost Stories.. As for Friday, I had the game for a little over a year and out of maybe 30 plays, I only ever won once. Like you guys said, notoriously tough but such a fun little game. Great list guys.. :)

[@FostertheMeeple]

Ghost stories is a good shout!!

[@stevebrown5253]

Onitama and Hive are my favorites… Honorable mention to Santorini.

[@WobblebearTrail]

Guards of Atlantis 2 would be my pick for easy to learn game but difficulty to master

[@catherinegagnon7]

My favorite game would be Photosynthesis! Nobody ever talk about that one!

[@FostertheMeeple]

It’s a good one!! It’s been awhile but we like it

[@DanaParedes]

I recently learned Evergreen, which is very similar to photosynthesis but better imo. Check that one out if you haven’t already. Also easy to learn, hard to master.

[@umamifriends]

Some of my favorite games!

[@coreynoemif3j29]

Targi is the first game that comes to mind. So good! Thanks for the vids. Just watched your Buttonshy one an ordered revolver noir.

[@REV1517]

Pretty much anything Reiner Knizia is designed this way.

[@tfpp1]

Besides the obvious oldies like Go and Chess, I would definitely put Tak in this category. The best abstract game since Hive, IMHO. 😅

[@FostertheMeeple]

Tak is one I very much want to play. Love the source material!

[@starshocker]

I'd love to play Oceans and Res Arcana.

[@FostertheMeeple]

Res Arcana is on BGA!

[@dominikgarbauer6883]

I hate-loved Friday so much to the point that I gave it away. I was never able to finish it just once.

[@FostertheMeeple]

It’s a frustrating one for sure

[@LanguageMaus]

Awesome video, I put the Boop cat battle on my list haha. Seems fun. Please film slower videos (and maybe a bit longer too, its nice to see the actual game), the Shipwrights one was trippy.

[@FostertheMeeple]

Hey! Working on that :) it tough because we often film broll while playing and it interrupts the flow of the game, but I am trying to take a bit more time now :)

[@heathercaswell]

The chokehold that Crokinole currently has on my household is next level....

[@FostertheMeeple]

I get that, it’s an incredible game

[@juliebggeek6545]

Jeff for Res Arcana you say you prefer to be handed a hand of card as opposed to drafting. Can you tell me, you just draw cards and play with them? What do you mean you are handed a hand of cards? Thanks!

[@FostertheMeeple]

The draft rules for Res Arcana are actually a variant. The rules of the game call for each player to be dealt 8 artifacts (cards). Those are the artifacts they have for the game, there’s no external card draw.

[@juliebggeek6545]

@@FostertheMeeple oh I didn’t remember that! Thanks for the reply!

[@ralfn9629]

Nice video. FRIDAY is great, never won this either! Here is my GAME number 1 -- and NOT only for this list. It is also my number 1 of all time. And here I am unique, because I love a lot of modern board games and love great themes (I have over 200, not as many as you own obviously). And somebody already commented Chess; I disagree. Chess has a LOT of rules. The best game humans have invented is the abstract and oldest continuous played boardgame in the world: GO!! Only 2 and a half easy rules but now with the AI (who only beat the best professional human player in 2016) we will never ever beat the machine again!

[@pjjjr]

While listen this episode, I hope Friday is on the list. An yes: you selected Friday. So hard to master!

[@FostertheMeeple]

Definitely!

[@tourguidechuck]

Age of War, Santorini, Carcassonne, Sonora

[@JPNox]

As a bidding hater I like what they did in Furnace

[@4theluvofbooks211]

Have you done a favorite dexterity games video?

[@FostertheMeeple]

Not yet!! But it’s in the list!

[@pronumeral1446]

"Do you know what I love?" "Boardgames? Sex?" 😂

[@craigandrews7544]

He said snacks 🙄

[@darin-ka]

@@craigandrews7544 … but Dr. Freud would have liked it!

[@starshocker]

Friday, I had one win out of 20 loss

[@bethanypetersen7005]

I took have never won Friday lol

[@thestorythusfar911]

Shobu is the top dawg if ur talking easy to learn hard to master.

[@FostertheMeeple]

Haven’t played that one!

[@thestorythusfar911]

@FostertheMeeple two player abstract game that you'll immediately want to play over and over. A lot of layers with a super easy rules set.

[@Drekster2001]

Let me guess... Villainous? :)

[@jalalfiguigui7936]

Chess

[@travelinwithTODD]

i couldn't follow what was going on in this video. i was distracted by your tiny hands!!! lol. j/k great list of games.

[@FostertheMeeple]

Hahaha nice

[@travelinwithTODD]

@@FostertheMeeple love the channel, love what you two do!

[@emilymone8896]

Woah I see "no views" for the first time for a youtube video lol

[@FostertheMeeple]

Just means you’re first haha

[@grantfraser5430]

Obviously Go has to be #1 by default but games like Go and Chess should generally be avoided for lists like this. Other than that I would suggest Kamisado. Also, I disagree with Friday. Great game, fairly simple strategy to win over 90% of the time. But it is always challenging even after figuring out the strategy. I would drop it from the list but give it honorable mention status.

[@aidosm2003]

🎉

[@christiann6072]

why do you always wear a hat? are you losing your hair?

[@FostertheMeeple]

Why does wearing a hat mean I’m losing hair! I just like to wear a hat? Haha

[@tyleryoung3158]

Some guys are just hat guys. Jeff’s a hat guy. Also, I’m a hat guy and YES I’m bald but it’s not because I’m bald.

[@PablowingUrMind]

I imagined a kid asking this lol